At this time, depending on the medical condition of a person, whether they’re an elder or whether they’re a young person who wishes to return to their community and die in their community, we can provide palliative care for certain conditions. There are some conditions that we’ll probably never be able to provide palliative care for, for a person who wishes to die in their community, because of the extreme medical needs of some. But for certain medical conditions we can do it now. Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Is there any funding in the provisions to train and assist local people in the community of Deline to look after their loved ones in times of need?

There isn’t a specific fund for that but there are different types of training that are available to all residents of the Northwest Territories. Things like First Aid, Medical First Aid, and Mental Health First Aid. There are a number of programs that are available. But as far as specific palliative care training, no, there isn’t. But we do have some dollars in our budget that allow staff to put in some overtime to provide some one-on-one support to families and the patient if needed.

Just a reminder, this is palliative care for short periods for certain medical conditions. It certainly can’t cover all conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a few questions for the Minister of Human Resources. I’d like to ask the Minister, what is the most current vacancy rate for GNWT jobs in the Mackenzie Delta including education and health authorities?

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can give the Member a snapshot of what we have on PeopleSoft October 31, 2014. There were 19 vacancies. Usually by September all of the positions in the schools are filled so that there will probably be no vacancies there, but with the rest of the GNWT there are 19 vacancies in the Mackenzie Delta at that time.

I’d like to ask the Minister, on average, how long have these jobs in the Delta gone unfilled and how does that compare to the NWT average?

Right now there are nine of those 19 jobs. Well, as of October 31st , when

those vacancies were identified, we proceeded to try to fill nine of those jobs, so either those jobs have been filled or are in the process of being filled. Then there is also the possibility that there have been more vacancies created. On average, the jobs that we go to fill are being filled in the same time period as other jobs across the territory.

Last year the Minister announced the Regional Recruitment Program which was supposed to link on-the-job training to a permanent job.

How often has this been done in the Mackenzie Delta and what are the results so far?

I don’t know if any of the regional recruitment positions are in the Mackenzie Delta riding. I can get that information. However, I do know that if there is a possibility that any of those positions would be eligible for the regional recruitment position, we would use that as a method to fill jobs. If a standard process was not working, then we would use a regional recruitment to fill those jobs.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within the last year the Gwich’in, the GNWT and Canada have all signed an agreement to build capacity within the communities. I’d like to ask the Minister for the status of that as of today and how many jobs are working towards being filled.

This is a committee between the Gwich’in and GNWT. The Premier and the president did sign this memorandum of intent on April 1, 2014. We set up a working group between the Gwich’in, GNWT and the federal government. The intention is to have three people starting at the Gwich’in, three people starting in the GNWT and three people starting with the federal government all at the same time and working in those positions for one year and then they would rotate. We would also make accommodations if any of the Gwich’in people wished to stay exactly where they were after year one. We’re expecting to make the first placements of those positions on September 1, 2015.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to ask questions to the Minister of Transportation. Just before I do that, of course, I’d like to send a little hello and a shout out to Patrick Joss who is watching our proceedings here all the way in Ulukhaktok. It’s really exciting that we have people watching.

Speaking of people watching, many of the people I had talked to in Gameti wanted to know when the Tulita winter road would be worked on as a capital project and when would money be put into the capital plan so they can eventually see the Tulita winter road connect from Highway No. 3 all the way to at least Whati.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve done a considerable amount of work in the plan to build an all-season road off of Highway No. 3 to Whati. It’s one of the roads where we have a group working on it, GNWT and the Tlicho government. This is something that we are looking at. I don’t have the exact status as of today, but there are some requirements that need to be filled prior to this going forward in the capital plan and we’re working on those requirements now.

I think I was reading in the Huffington Post a few weeks ago about how important connecting communities to road infrastructure is and how it changes the life when it comes to cost of living. It adds benefits such as regular fuel supply, regular grocery supply and certainly family connections. I could go on about the merits, but the question really is when can we expect to see it in the capital plan to help lower the costs of communities like that, that are so close to the highway? We could make a real difference and

a dent in the cost of living in their lives. We should be on this.

We’ve certainly talked about the highway a lot. I can’t give a definite date on how close we are, but we consider that to be one of the roads. We have a few roads right now. We have a proposal into the federal government on the Mackenzie Valley Highway, so we’re looking at that as well as a couple of other all-season roads.

I want to assure my good friends from the Sahtu that I’m not wanting to take away from their road. I think the Mackenzie Valley Highway merits stand on their own. This road would provide close community access to major infrastructure and connect family, food, people, everything. You name it, it comes with all the fantastic benefits.

When will this government hear back from our proposal about connecting with this community? I think it’s time this government comes up with a policy to ensure that if we had a community within a certain amount of distance, we need to get together right away and start building these plans and building these highways that make all the world of difference to these folks when it comes to their cost of living. Thank you.

Certainly if we had the money to do all the roads we would be able to do it. The Whati all-season road has a price tag of about $150 million to go from Highway No. 3. It’s approximately 105 kilometres into Whati. There are certainly benefits to doing that. Again, it’s tied into our capital, our ability to borrow the money if need be. So, that affects the borrowing limit of the GNWT. We’d like to do all these roads, but we have to put them into some sort of priority as the borrowing limit makes the decision on whether or not we have the money to borrow to build these highways. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.